Morningstar: Riflemen of the Danger Days
by Exedous
Summary: Across the blasted wasteland of the western continental united states, Corporations rise in power. As Better Living Industries gears up to crack down on the Killjoys. An employee of Morningstar Defense Solutions has his own problems to deal with. R&R


**Author's note: Now, the first chapter might not be pleasing to all of you. That's because you must keep in mind that realistically, not all of the people running from an established authority are going to be saintly heroes. If they are teenage kids, they are going to act like teenage kids, make a ruckus and generally make a mess out of a lot of things. The view of Killjoys in the first chapter will not extend through the entire story. Also, this story will tell the story of the BL/ind director as he struggles through the world.**

**I thought that the Killjoyverse had so much potential but it was simply confined to the small space of California. What if it wasn't just California, what if there was also the entire west united states? What if there was another corporation, or two, or three? What if the corporations followed rules? Is it really possible that a couple of kids could survive the onslaught of an entire multi-trillion dollar corporation and bring it down? Where did all the rest of the dracs go, perhaps they were taking care of a greater threat.**

**This is derivative work. Killjoys, BL/ind and any other applicable items are property of MCR. Ray weaponry and directed energy weaponry plus all references are used interchangeably. Kinetic energy projectors and plasma projection does not fall under the general directed energy category. Function of all fictional technology is inferred and drawn from my knowledge of basic science, mechanics, and physics. Deviations from the storyline may or may not be intentional. Actual technology or landscape may or may not be accurate and this work is in no way canon with the Killjoyverse timeline.**

Story begins:

Sandbravo enjoyed his breakfast while his friend sat in the living room and conversed with a few youths in ridiculous clothing, wearing masks and toting around some of those silly ray-guns that were all the rage nowadays. Jeez, nowadays, if it wasn't a ray-gun, then it wasn't considered a threat even if regular lead bullets could kill just as easily, they still made those you know. The so called killjoys just had their ray-guns out and were waving them around with the safeties off and their fingers on the trigger like they were some kind of toy, jumping around and making a ruckus, it was ridiculous. Sandbravo finished the eggs and bacon he had made, drained his glass of milk and walked into the room yelling to get the attention of all the kids.

Suddenly, one of the killjoys accidentally pulled the trigger and destroyed a lamp on the far side of the room, prompting Sandbravo to pull out a blank firing small caliber revolver and fire it at them repeatedly, forcing them to flinch as the unexpectedly still loud crack of the gunpowder sent them cowering and the sound reverberated around the house. "HEY! SHUT UP AND SIT DOWN ALL OF YOU!" he hollered, putting away the pistol and walking over to the leader of them.

"Hey you there! Control your people before I kick you out myself. I don't know what you are doing but you already got what you wanted so tell me why you are still here."

Archeractual stood up and went back into the armory to grab the sniper rifle, getting ready to go to the watch tower and look for any threats.

The killjoy leader smiled endearingly, well, as much as possible, it didn't work at all on Sandbravo. He readjusted his position on the couch, causing his jacket to move and the metal trinkets to scratch against the good leather, which caused Sandbravo to become even angrier.

"Chill man, we're just going to wait and see if we could help with any BLind attacks, we saw a patrol when we were coming here." He said, not even willing to acknowledge the reason why Sandbravo was mad.

At the sight of their leader acting 'so cool,' the other killjoys began roughhousing again, just like usual. These weren't probably what all of them were like but hell if any more of them got past the doors of SB manor ever again, if this was how Sandbravo was to be repayed for giving them good food then the next group that showed up would be greeted by a hail of lead. Anger radiated in every direction and at the sheer sight of their host, the killjoys suddenly went silent and when SB nodded at the door, they all quietly stood up and started moving.

It was a hot day, the Nevada sun shone on big house that Sandbravo and Archeractual had been given to live in by their employer Morningstar-Defense Solutions, a large private defense agency that had split off from Xe services just before the war. When the bombs began to fall, MDS had gone to the country side so they had survived. There was a large city clustered around the headquarters several kilometers away and the skyscrapers loomed up from the desert. Of course, the house wasn't really in the desert zone, but relatively close to the stand of trees at the foot of the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range.

The killjoy group stood outside, being eyed fiercely by Sandbravo while Archeractual kept watch from the sniper tower at the top of the house, watching if just to keep himself amused. Headquarters was no more than a kilometer up spin and the early warning system would detect any sizable force long before Archeractual would be able to engage.

"Alright, I give you beans, bacon, fruits and vegetables when you show up with dog food! I give you a nice place to stay the night and you repay me by making a mess of my house? You're lucky I don't call the entirety of the Morningstar Military on you, or better yet, mow you down where you stand. Now tell me why you went through the trouble of coming here to bother me."

The group stood outside staring at the flustered former Marine Sniper as his fingers inched ever closer to the blank gun again.

"Uh …" said the leader of them, in an apologetic manner. "We were, sent here by a bigger group to talk with your um … defense? … firm?. They said they had discussed the matter already so …"

Just then the phone rang inside the house. It was not a regular ring, actually it was more of an ultrasound noise. Sandbravo glared at them to make them stay while he went back into the house.

The killjoy group stood there transfixed as Archeractual swiveled the .50 caliber sniper to keep them in line. The place went dead until an anguished scream was heard from inside the house.

"FFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUU..."

**2 hours later**

**Morningstar Defense Headquarters**

The meeting room in the skyscraper that rose above Dawnlight city was pitch dark, not even the traffic was noticeable through the reinforced concrete and steel of the building; it was a fortress to defend the best interests of Morningstar Defense Solutions. Sandbravo sat directly opposite from his boss by the codename Mister Morningstar though he also used Mister Moore. Sand leaned forward, his bulky frame contrasted with his employer's rather slim and light frame; the combat fatigues contrasting against the oil black suit.

"I understand what I'm going to have to do, but explain to me why we need to do this and why me?" demanded Sandbravo in a level tone, his mind fell in anguish as he imagined having to lead the new 'recruits' that he had been assigned to.

"Sand, I assure you that it won't be that bad. I picked you because you are simply the highest ranking non-essential officer and therefore, the most qualified for this mission." Mr. Moore pulled up a small hologram, displaying multiple pieces of data, numbers flooded across the screen but what drew Sandbravo's attention the most was a map of the southwest continental United States. Two shaded blobs began to move and conform across the map as a number ticked down the days since the nuclear weapons holocaust.

"You see, ever since Dawnlight city has grown up around us, we have begun to provide more and more services, you might even say that we are a government in and of ourselves. However, there is another corporation named Better Living industries that has been encroaching on our assets and territory, our spies have told us that they plan to declare war on us within a month." He enlarged the map to show BL/ind influence in blue which spread across much of California and a little into Mexico while Morningstar influence was shown in red covering almost all of the Nevada state with all of the Sierra Nevada mountain range and a very tiny pinprick sticking right into BL/ind controlled territory. He enlarged that part just for emphasis.

"Now, this is the most vulnerable part of our territory, the rest of our boarder with BL/ind is safeguarded by the Sierra Nevada. As it turns out, this is also the highest concentration of a certain resistance group you know as the Killjoys." He pulled up profiles of the group that had arrived at his home and highlighted several figures. "This is Dark Danger, he is apparently the leader of the group that came here. They seem very interested in the Embassy that BLind has outside our city and we have had to ward them away multiple times already. Even though only a few showed up at your house, the actual number they sent is about thirty."

Several others were highlighted as well, each with equally ridiculous names, where did they get those things anyway? If they were going to have codenames, at least be professional about it. Sandbravo scrunched his face that the thought of actually having to say those things, ugh. "So I'm gonna have to lead these guys? I'm going into some mighty deep shit, so what support am I gonna have? Troop strength, morningstar soldiers, not those guys."

"Oh, you'll have enough support. I'm assigning you at least a platoon of instructors and special ops personnel, not including other specialists. Our sister corporation Eveningstar Defenses has deployed several ships from its position in Puget sound so you'll have as much fire support as you want and we have at least a battalion ready to drop from strategic bombers as soon as you need them." He brought up some schematics of the soldiers, the gear, the planes and last of all, the ships.

Sandbravo whistled at the specs. "Sir, 36 inch gun on the battleship, are you crazy? That thing is a strategic weapon, not tactical, are you really sure you want to do that?"

"Sand, I am making sure that our assets stay safe, my equipment, my men, and you as my friend. If I need to level a city block to do it then I will do it. Most of the forces you are leading will be irregulars and we can file this under collateral damage anyway."

"Anything on the Lifeline Medical corporation yet and where do they stand on this matter?" Sandbravo inquired. The border between California and Arizona was a major problem because if Blind was able to sneak through there, then Morningstar would have to deal with a flanking attack.

"Our agents are dealing with them now, but it seems that Lifeline Medical is going to take a neutral stance in the war. They are mobilizing their security forces across both borders so that takes care of the Arizona. Meiestas Electronics is shipping their military to Arizona and Oregon from Utah right now so it's just going to be a straight up dual between us and BLind."

Sandbravo leaned back in his chair; he was going to have to train those "Killjoys." It was going to be difficult to mold them into an effective professional fighting force and getting them to learn how to use military grade hardware was gonna be a nightmare. He refused to go into battle with anything other than an adequately competent group of riflemen, anything less was out of the question, including the Killjoys. His mind flashed back to the house with all of them roughhousing, acting completely out of line and waving around their god damned rayguns, the things were jury rigged pieces of crap, they didn't even have a visible safety.

From the looks of the group he was sent, it was gonna be making riflemen from mud and an old poem from Rudyard Kipling came to mind, "the sergeant and the pharaoh." Rubbed the ridge of his nose and looked at his employer looked back, perfectly understanding the predicament. Unfortunately, Moore smirked, whenever he smirked then that was a sign the he planned on doing something.

"Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you, the leader of the platoon is going to be a person you know. It's going to be your old girlfriend, Lance Corporal Leavenworth."

A long silence fell on both of them; that smirk was still plastered across Moore's face while Sandbravo began to twitch. First his hand, then the corner of his lip, and finally he took a deep breath.

"FFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUU…."

**That time**

**BL/ind Headquarters**

The director sat at his desk, staring at the picture on his desk of him and his kid on the beach. That old picture when the kid was still young but then he had run away, guess it was a bit hard inheriting a multi-trillion dollar empire, not like he blamed the little guy. A guard watched over the middle aged man in the slowly fading suit and the greying hair.

"Sir" said the guard, bowing slightly and moving forward to offer some pills he held. "It is almost time to take your medication. Is there something on your mind?"

"It's fine, just give me my medicine." Said the director. He swiped away the pills and popped them into his mouth without water then turned to his work. There were things to be done and for the war, there would need to be more draculoid guards to patrol the zones. Fresh recruits would be enough to take care of the killjoys but the Morningstar soldiers were a different matter.

Bands of rabble, sometimes there would be a decent fighter among them to make trouble but otherwise they were simple to deal with; far different from professional soldiers. Professional soldiers had proper equipment, plenty of ammo, training, experience and not to mention armored vehicles. Fresh recruits would be chewed up immediately so he needed to mobilize the most veteran forces the company could muster which were precious few as the killjoys tended to either kill the Draculoids or otherwise be pathetic training.

There was one advantage that Better Living Industries could bring to bear, and that would be strength in numbers. Morningstar could probably muster at most a few battalions but BL/ind could muster up thousands of soldiers once industry got rolling.

"Guard!" said the director as he lifted his head from his hands. "Get me the clinic manager, I need to speak with him about our troop numbers. Go."

The guard bowed and backed out of the room; the automatic door closed behind him leaving the room bathed in the light of the floodlights. The only sound seemed to be the air conditioner with the director sitting looking at the picture. Muttering an apology to the picture and the memory of his son, he overturned the picture and went back to preparing the formal declaration of war.


End file.
